Vendor Outsourcing in Disguise: The Truth About Mainframe ‘Clouds’

A recent mainframe software vendor’s blog post included a quote from an anonymous State and Local CIO expressing excitement about mainframe “Cloud” offerings. My first thought was that this was an obvious vendor gimmick. But as the former CTO of Arkansas, I realized some of my peers in government IT may not see it as that. They might read the blog and be drawn down a path of no return if beguiled by money-saving schemes.

Caveat emptor: This is not a Cloud service. It is a traditional outsourcing arrangement—and it’s not a good one.

The advantage of a Cloud is you pay as you go, avoiding infrastructure and support costs. But here’s the thing: even though distributed systems can run “in the Cloud,” companies still have full control over them. The mainframe Cloud this vendor is advocating for does not give you control over your systems. It gives them control.

The Ruse of Saving Money with a Mainframe ‘Cloud’

IT leaders today are faced with continual budget constraints. As always, there are new and shiny tools out there that are presented as the next best thing to answer all of your issues in one fell swoop. With the average tenure of a state CIO hovering around two years, these solutions sound great.

Whether it is a platform solution or a new, automated public service where you merely flip a switch, it often sounds too good to be true.

Moving to a proprietary mainframe Cloud to cut costs is clearly a masquerade for forcing adopters into a rigid, top-down set of point products owned by monolithic vendors who then commandeer complete control of your mainframe environment—including how much and how often they charge for service, licensing and other revenue-generating factors they’ve condensed into their “Cloud.”

The Facts Surrounding Conversions: Working Code is Gold

First, let’s take a look at the facts surrounding system conversions. Keep one sentence in mind as you spend precious dollars: Working code is gold! The multi-million-dollar cost associated with re-writing applications is often prohibitive. Even if successful, they run less effectively and at a higher cost when moved, as Dr. Howard Rubin, CEO and Founder of Rubin Worldwide, has shown.

Second, projects that involve rewriting high-volume, high-performance, highly secure mainframe applications as Cloud applications have largely failed in practice. Only a small percentage of these projects actually succeed. For a recent example, read this article.

A Better Option: Two-platform IT Strategy

Let’s face it, “as a service’” Cloud providers like AWS and Azure have distributed infrastructure down to a science. Moving distributed apps is almost a no-brainer. However, there is no real cost advantage to moving mainframe infrastructure.

At Compuware, we implemented what we call a “Two-platform” approach to IT. We shifted all administrative, non-differentiating functions to the Cloud. Our email, customer information and call center functions work seamlessly using the integrated functionality that is readily available. Our proprietary software, which requires the utmost resilient platform, resides in our data center. It runs on the most securable, highest-speed processor with seamless redundancy available in the market today—the mainframe.

And what has been the overall fiscal impact? We removed 91 racks and saved millions of dollars.

Don’t be ‘Cloud’-exploited—Let Us Help You

We have a standing offer to every public sector CIO. Do you want to leverage every tax dollar you receive? Do you want to deliver secure, high-speed services to the citizens you serve?

CIOs looking at Cloud for mainframe applications are more likely feeling trapped on a platform that they don’t understand, and/or are concerned with the speed of development. It’s way more effective to capitalize on the mainframe and invest in tools that support Agile Development and DevOps processes.

We will help you every step of the way, and it begins in Detroit. Come and see for yourself how industry leaders maximize the Cloud and keep their critical assets on the best platform available—the mainframe.

What can we do to help your mainframe organization? Fill out a contact form today.

About the Author:

3 Comments

Claire, I love the comment “The mainframe Cloud this vendor is advocating for does not give you control over your systems. It gives them control.” It reminds me of the junk mail I receive from my mortgage company allowing me the opportunity to pay for the privledge of insuring their loan to me against my own death. Sounds to me like this vendor is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and they’re trying to pull the wool over unsuspecting compannies eyes. We need more transparency on this great platform, not less.I’m proud of what Compuware is doing to be a good steward of the mainframe platform. Thanks for being a watchdog.

Interesting post, until I brief the Compuware team in a couple of weeks on how the cloud in question works, wondering how Compuware can know so much about said cloud. The cloud in question typically saves clients 30% over on premise mainframe operations. The cloud in question is also open to every mainframe ISV with no lock in or restrictions. I am really looking forward to welcoming Compuware into the new era of cloud computing where their software can run on modern hardware, be kept current and the end client can get the maximum performance at the lowest cost. As I keep saying please get in touch @StevenDickens3 if you want the briefing sooner….

You have an unattractive manner that assumes others, “Don’t get it.” Trust me, “Compuware gets the cloud.” In the last 2 1/2 years while Compuware has transformed itself into being fully DevOps and Agile on the mainframe, we have also converted our G&A, Marketing and Sales IT services from on-premise, internally managed distributed systems to public-cloud consumed services. This project called, “Two-Platform IT,” leverages the mainframe for proprietary digital assets that are the foundation of our competitive advantage and, for those IT services that are non-core to our competitive strategy, we consume as services from public-clouds (e.g. Amazon/AWS, SFDC, Netsuite, …). We know exactly how much, to the penny, that Compuware has saved and the improvements in service levels gained by converting from an on-premise, internally-managed distributed hairball to cloud consumed services. We’ve also shared our experience publicly in various forms of content, as well as, briefed industry analysts in an effort to help others. Compuware gets the cloud and we also know a little bit about the mainframe. Please see related blog: Why Can’t You Buy IBMz Mainframe Services from AWS.

You also have an unattractive manner of publicly offering to clarify confusion around zCloud (which is the message you own), but then privately being far too busy to commit the time necessary towards sharing the details. We’ve read all the public materials that we’re aware exists on zCloud. We’ve spoken with IBM partners on zCloud. We’ve spoken to industry analysts on zCloud. We’ve spoken with a numbers of mainframe customers that have been pitched zCloud. We’ve have, however, struggled to have a substantive conversation with you on zCloud. We are certainly engaged and curious in our efforts to understand zCloud and Claire rightly states what we know to be true from all these collective perspectives. Which leads me to your question, “…wondering how Compuware can know so much about said cloud.” As the offering manager of zCloud, I would think that your first order of business before launching such an offering would have been to get a vibrant ecosystem of partners deeply engaged. I don’t think a mainframe cloud that allows mainframe customers to pick and choose between either CA or IBM products is terribly exciting nor rises to the level of an AWS or Azure style cloud offering. I’m hopeful that you’ll finally keep the next meeting to properly explain zCloud.

In regards to your “openness” towards ISVs that seems to change like the weather, only four days ago, you made serious accusations on social media towards mainframe ISVs generally (e.g. “when ISV’ enforce draconian terms and rip clients off that is profiteering let’s call it what it is?”) rather than singling out any ISVs specifically. I brought this to the attention of Ross Mauri, your GM of IBM’s mainframe business unit, and his perspective was pretty clear, “Mr. Dickens is off the ranch.” IBM, as the steward of the mainframe platform, should not be disparaging the entire mainframe ISV ecosystem to make a point unless that is the point. Additionally, I would think making broadly disparaging remarks about mainframe ISV ecosystem is the last thing on earth that IBM’s offering manager of zCloud would do. Could you image Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure publicly lashing out at their essential partner ecosystem? Clouds that customer value are those that by the very nature supportive, cooperative and collaborative. I would leave it for customers to decide which mainframe vendors are “profiteering” and which mainframe vendors are authentically dedicated to “investing towards worthy mainframe innovation.”

Stephen, I could go on, but I won’t. Trust me, Compuware gets it and I’m hopeful that we can have a collaborative dialogue and constructive meeting in the next few weeks. Until then…